Gaston County soccer players drawn to Charlotte school

Soccer trainer Daniel Araujo works out at his Charlotte soccer studio recently. Araujo works to train area soccer players the game.

Special to The Gazette

By M. Wayne Clarke

Published: Thursday, January 23, 2014 at 08:51 PM.

Daniel Araujo is as involved in this drill as his students. He’s paired them in groups of two — one player with the ball and the other player applying light pressure as the attacking player goes through a series of step-overs with one foot.

Araujo is partnered up with Thomas Matthew, the oldest student in today’s “Tactical Foundations” class, and the coach is talking as he’s demonstrating the drill, which is designed to get players comfortable taking on a defender. With Araujo playing the role of attacking player, and Matthew doing as instructed — applying very light pressure while backing up — Araujo goes completely off script and flips the ball over the 16-year-old’s head, going by the befuddled high school junior with ease.

“Ahhh, you like that?” Araujo says, clearly pleased with himself. “Sorry I did that, my friend. Thanks for letting me get that one.”

As a trainer, Araujo’s voice resonates. He’s authoritative. He’s demonstrative. He’s demanding. And he’s having as much fun as his students, many of them from Gaston County — maybe even more.

“If you can’t have fun playing this game, you won’t learn how to play,” says the 40-year-old married father of two children (Carolina, 10, and Bruno, 7.) “That’s the biggest part of soccer — having the ability to be creative, trying different moves, doing different things. Soccer doesn’t follow a script — that’s why play doesn’t stop.”

As co-owner of Creative Player, Inc., Araujo is reciting a philosophy that he believes makes soccer players go from ordinary to dynamic. To back up that philosophy, he originated Creative Player DMAC Futbol, a training program offering age-appropriate development for players ages five to 18, which teaches “dynamic movement and coordination for the modern game.”

“Look at how the rest of the world plays. There’s movement, there’s rhythm, they’re not mechanical in their play,” says Araujo, a native of Montevideo, Uruguay, who is also director of operations for Puntarenas FC, a first division professional soccer club in Costa Rica. “Coaches in America emphasize the tactical side of the game, which is good — but they pay little attention to the technical side, which players have to master before they can become tactically sound.”

Daniel Araujo is as involved in this drill as his students. He’s paired them in groups of two — one player with the ball and the other player applying light pressure as the attacking player goes through a series of step-overs with one foot.

Araujo is partnered up with Thomas Matthew, the oldest student in today’s “Tactical Foundations” class, and the coach is talking as he’s demonstrating the drill, which is designed to get players comfortable taking on a defender. With Araujo playing the role of attacking player, and Matthew doing as instructed — applying very light pressure while backing up — Araujo goes completely off script and flips the ball over the 16-year-old’s head, going by the befuddled high school junior with ease.

“Ahhh, you like that?” Araujo says, clearly pleased with himself. “Sorry I did that, my friend. Thanks for letting me get that one.”

As a trainer, Araujo’s voice resonates. He’s authoritative. He’s demonstrative. He’s demanding. And he’s having as much fun as his students, many of them from Gaston County — maybe even more.

“If you can’t have fun playing this game, you won’t learn how to play,” says the 40-year-old married father of two children (Carolina, 10, and Bruno, 7.) “That’s the biggest part of soccer — having the ability to be creative, trying different moves, doing different things. Soccer doesn’t follow a script — that’s why play doesn’t stop.”

As co-owner of Creative Player, Inc., Araujo is reciting a philosophy that he believes makes soccer players go from ordinary to dynamic. To back up that philosophy, he originated Creative Player DMAC Futbol, a training program offering age-appropriate development for players ages five to 18, which teaches “dynamic movement and coordination for the modern game.”

“Look at how the rest of the world plays. There’s movement, there’s rhythm, they’re not mechanical in their play,” says Araujo, a native of Montevideo, Uruguay, who is also director of operations for Puntarenas FC, a first division professional soccer club in Costa Rica. “Coaches in America emphasize the tactical side of the game, which is good — but they pay little attention to the technical side, which players have to master before they can become tactically sound.”

Araujo speaks with authority on the subject because he’s been there. Reaching the professional ranks, he played for first division Central Español FC of Montevideo, and for second division Deportivo Pasto of Pasto, Colombia.

When he migrated to the United States in 1998, Araujo, who was a center midfielder, played for the Connecticut Wolves of the USISL A-League. After he retired in 2000, his passion for teaching grew, and he developed his vision for Creative Player, first bringing it to Hispanic communities. Part of Araujo’s ongoing dream was realized last June, when he opened the Creative Player Soccer Learning Center in Charlotte. Located at 2601 Wilkinson Blvd., a stone’s throw past Charlotte-Douglas Airport, the indoor-outdoor facility gives soccer players in Gaston County another training option.

“We felt it was important to have this facility in an urban area, where kids in this community could have access as well as kids from the suburbs,” says John Pietak, co-founder of Creative Player and co-author of the Creative Player Coaching Vision. Pietak is originally from Rochester, N.Y., and was an All-Conference, All-District and All-American player at Catawba College from 1984 to 1986.

“That’s the other thing about soccer in America — it’s largely a suburban sport,” says Pietak.

While Creative Player offers classes and training opportunities year-round, Pietak says it was important that their business was open to every player, regardless of club affiliation or skill level.

“We have no interest in taking players away from their clubs or their teams,” says Pietak. “We’re all about developing individual players and supplementing their training. And the players we’ve worked with understand that.”